In the inhuman , former hebdomad of 1770 , the metropolis of Boston was an inviolable tinderbox . British soldiers and othersloyal to the crownjockeyed with wild colonists who chafe under the taxes levied by England and talked openly of starting a newfangled land . tenseness escalated . incline were choose . soldier station word home that the full affair could shoot a line at any minute .
And on a wintry night in March of that twelvemonth , it did .
The Boston Massacre did n’t , in the strictest of terms , startthe American Revolution . That was still a few year and oneTea Partyaway . But the tragic events of March 5 , 1770 , cemented the notion that the relationship between England and its colonies was irretrievably broken , win over many colonists that exemption from English pattern was the only way forrader .
you may still chew the fat the internet site of the Boston Massacre today , at the crossway of Devonshire and State ( formerly King ) street in downtown Boston , at the groundwork of theOld State House . New England schoolkids take even pilgrimages to the area as part of their curriculum . Tourists rain cats and dogs by on their walks down theFreedom Trail .
But the story of the Boston Massacre — what rabble - rouserPaul Reverecalled the " Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street " in an engraving made just weeks after the outcome — is not as wide-eyed as it ’s often told .
Boston Was a Powder Keg
" The Boston Massacre , " state Katie Drescher , the picture gallery supervisor and senior educator at theBostonian Society and the Old State House , " was something like 10 years in the making . This did n’t fall out out of nowhere . There was so much happening . "
To understand that dark , you have to get a feel for the tenseness between those fast to England and those who were shopworn of it . You have to translate what the house physician of Boston and their families , some of them going back more than 100 years to the city ’s founding , had been through;smallpox outbreaks , a immense temblor in 1755 , a " great fire " in 1760 .
Shopkeepers were refuse to bear taxes imposed under theStamp Actin 1765 and theTownshend Actstwo years subsequently . The whole melodic theme of " no revenue enhancement without representation " was take hold . Colonists were not represented in England ’s Parliament , and many felt their rights as Englishmen were being stripped away . Throughout the colonies , a resistance grew .
The British send more soldiers to Boston — redcoats , " lobster back " — to bushel order and impose the jurisprudence . Scuffles ensue . Protests split out . And then , 11 days before the incident in front of the Old State House ( the fundament of Royal Government and the Massachusetts Assembly),an 11 - year - old boywas killed by a British customs service employee who fired into an unruly crew on the North End of Boston .
one C of people , maybe more than 1,000 , attended the boy ’s funeral . An furious Boston was ripe for something bad to encounter . And that ’s how things stood on the night of March 5 .
" It was n’t a surprising consequence , " Drescher says of the Boston Massacre . " I think it was a pretty inevitable thing . "
What Happened That Night
For one of the most well - known , well - researched incidents of Boston ’s pre - Revolutionary War Era , it ’s still unclear as to exactly what triggered the Boston Massacre .
" One of the big things about the Boston Massacre is that we still do n’t really know why those soldier fired into the crowd , what really happened to have that first blast to be fired , " Drescher says . " We have an agreement that a soldier terminate into the crowd , and it kind of causes a chain reaction , the other soldier fire . But what was his motive ? Was it accidental ? Of of course , the soldier all said they were defending themselves against the crowd . But what was that present moment that causes this man to fervency ? Was he impinge on with something ? Does he trip and devolve — someone said he slips on ice and falls down and his musket fires ? There are run phonograph record , but there is n’t one , general consensus . "
This much we do have intercourse : An angry mob , hundreds strong , face off against some soldier in front of the Custom House , near the Old State House on State Street . FromCapt . Thomas Preston ’s depositionat the ensuing trial :
Preston put several man and an officer to back up the sentry , but things only got worse . Some in the crew had clubs , including momentaneous slave - turned sailorCrispus Attucks , who is said to have been leading the furious syndicate . Others reportedly throw snowballs , rocks , chunks of coal or shells . In the confusion , a soldier — often identified as privateHugh Montgomery — was struck by someone in the family ( some say it was Attucks who struck him ) . Montgomery reportedly rose from the blow and fired , killing Attucks . Others followed . More from Preston :
This , too , we recognize for certain : Five men in the gang died , including Attucks , who eventually became know as the first martyr of the American Revolution . Preston , eight British soldiers and four civilians were apprehend and charge with the death . In October 1770,they present trial . Preston was carry , as were six of his soldiers and the four civilians . Two soldier were convict of involuntary manslaughter .
The defense team was run byJohn John Quincy Adams — who eventually became the 2nd president of the United States — in an drive that he after described as " one of the most gallant , generous , manfully and disinterested Actions of my whole Life , and one of the best Pieces of Service I ever give my Country . "
Still , the " Bloody Massacre " turn out to be a rallying point for those looking for independency from Britain , made so in enceinte part by Revere ’s propagandistengravingthat picture a tightly formed line of red - coated soldier firing on a well - dressed detail of unarmed colonists .
" Most of the misconception about the Boston Massacre come from Paul Revere ’s prototype , which I guess was the intent of the image in the 1770s , " Drescher says . " He require multitude to think that ’s what happened . And it has hung around for hundreds of years . citizenry still see it and say , ' Oh , yeah , I know what happened . ' "
The Boston Massacre Today
At least once a twelvemonth , a re - enactment of the night of March 5 , 1770 , shoot station on the blot of the Boston Massacre . A six - minute of arc multimedia system exhibit in one of the Old State House ’s second - floor antechambers is defy six times a Clarence Day . Amarker , made of 13 section of cobble , with a cobble in the snapper emblazoned with a star , is laid in the streetnear the sitewhere the five man were shot .
Local students , beginning around the third score , are told a watered - down reading of the Boston Massacre . Tour guides regularly regale tourists with stories of one of the most ill-famed event in the account of the history - rich city .
" It ’s bamboozle pretty good outside right now , and there ’s people out there , so … , " Drescher , a aboriginal of the Boston expanse , allege on a recent early December afternoon . " It does n’t matter what kind of weather . Every unmarried Clarence Day people are out there admit a word picture . "
